Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Amazon Stole My Lunch Money

Many of you may already know, especially if you follow me or any of the 21 other authors involved, that today was supposed to be the release for "Dark Fates", our boxed set of 22 urban fantasy and paranormal romance books. We each expected to wake up this morning and virtually toast each other with our steaming mugs of coffee and crazy bed hair, congratulating one another on a job well done, on a fruitful labor of love that we all chanted "Push!" for through three long months of pre-orders.

If you pre-ordered "Dark Fates" on Amazon, you likely opened your Kindle eager to dive in, only to find that the book consisted of 4 pages that simply listed the authors' names. Some readers have already emailed us or Amazon, and some have posted to our social media pages, and a confused few have left negative reviews expressing their disappointment. Trust me, we're all right there with you. Allow me to explain what happened...

Amazon sucks. Yup. That pretty much sums it up.

me and my morning cup of crushed dreams

Okay now, for real. Our publisher, the lovely and talented Rebecca Hamilton, who has organized many excellent boxed sets, uploaded our final book file well before deadline. She even sent us a screen shot showing proof of this. She triple-checked it, because she was afraid of this very thing happening, which has happened to several other books recently. When it became apparent that we fell victim to this glitch, she contacted Amazon. At which point, Amazon made the book unavailable and posted a notice on the book page pointing the blame at her. Even after they admitted that the fault was theirs. They've promised that they're working diligently to resolve their error, but we still have no concrete answer for when "Dark Fates" will be for sale again or for when they will send a corrected book to those who pre-ordered the set.In the meantime... upset readers have canceled orders (understandably), and the THOUSANDS of dollars we've invested in advertising and scheduled book promotions is slowly spiraling down the drain, along with our chance at hitting the USA Today Bestsellers list. This is quite an unexpected hit, and Amazon will most certainly not be compensating us for their incompetence. It's looking more and more like we could end up taking a loss, and I worry that this could spell disaster for some of the newer authors who took the plunge with us. Boxed sets like this can make or break writing careers. Maybe Amazon didn't "literally" steal our lunch money, but because of them, some of us might be relying on Ramen for a while until our bank accounts recover.Please know that we authors will not stop hounding Amazon until this is fixed and everyone who ordered "Dark Fates" has the correct book file. Also, if you've been waiting for this set to go live before ordering, please consider ordering it from another retailer if you're able to. Apple, Nook, and Kobo readers are not affected by this devastating mishap of Amazon's, and all things considered, we'd rather see the sales go to their competitors anyway. There's more than one playground. Maybe we'll be able to keep our lunch money by choosing which ones we play on more carefully.

Thank you for the updates, these are much appreciated! That said, I left a 5 star review on Amazon, and made it very plain who was at fault for the wrong file being sent out. I was fortunate enough to have a copy gifted to me on ITunes, and once I have had a chance to read this anthology, I will be updating my review. Thank you again for all your hard work (all the authors' hard work) and I am confident the anthology is worth the wait!

Is there anything fans can do to help you recover from the situation? It's back for sale on Amazon and seems to be doing well though it's not in the top 100 for the entire store. I don't know how far off you are from hitting the bestseller lists. I did grab a copy from iBooks as well since it was complete. I'd be glad to encourage help if I knew what would be useful for you guys.

Thank you so much, Shandra! ♥♥♥ There are so many ways readers can and have been helping. Leaving a review for the boxed set is amazingly helpful (or retailer sites, goodreads, and/or youtube/booktube), as well as sharing the retailer links on social media, retweeting/resharing posts about the set, and spreading the word to fellow booklovers in general. Also, if you have a friend or two who you know would love this set, gifting them a copy on Amazon or iBooks is another great way to help support the set. All of those things are really fantastic and so appreciated! Thanks for asking. It really means a lot to us! ♥

This has been an issue for a long time, but has popped up with alarming frequency recently. I have three books in the works for release later this year. Hope each of them goes smoothly.

When I uploaded the draft file for my second book I included this on the first page:

DRAFT! If you are reading this statement, then Amazon has sent you the wrong file. Contact them immediately to report the problem. (Feel free to mention I’m not happy that they’re messing with my readers either!) Also, when you leave your review, please understand that this is a mistake beyond the control of the author. I adore my readers and do everything within my power to give them an enjoyable reading experience. ~LK

I hope your book releases go smoothly too! I have a couple releasing later this year as well, and I plan on adding a similar message to the placeholder files. It's a nerve-wracking situation for sure, and it sucks that these extra measures have to be taken on our part when the error is on Amazon's end. : /